I made this easy ‘goody’ today. We are slowly getting through the home kill in the freezer but there is only so much beef you can eat before the thought of another heavy roast with spuds makes you want to go all vegan. I made this particular meal with less meat, more veges. I used about … Continue reading →

Kids need wholesome healthy lunches to get through their day and maintain positive energy levels, thus increasing their ability to learn and be happy. Wholefoods with plenty of fibre and nutrients also keep your kids fuller for longer. Making healthy kids lunches without all the packaging shouldn’t be a drag. Select the images or links … Continue reading →

Part of the reason I blog is to save ideas and recipes that I like. As I am no good at keeping bits of paper, Ma Barmalie is kind of my repository in Internet land. Sort of a modern scrapbook, come cookbook thing… Anyway, I have just discovered rice bread. My one reader may think … Continue reading →

Well, I have just pulled up the winter crop of garlic and hung it out to dry. This crop is the result of three bulbs. A second crop from three re-cycled bulbs belonging to a previous crop is almost ready but needs a couple of more weeks to bulb up. Both crops were planted in April this year … Continue reading →

In between everything else, I decided to give this a crack! From The Mum’s Lounge: “All you have to do to play along is take a moment each day to reflect on something that you feel grateful for and take a photograph of it. They needn’t be big things; a hot cup of coffee, reaching … Continue reading →

I needed a hummus that didn’t use tahini, as I had run out, so I found this recipe on the Internet and wrote it down. I haven’t been able to find the exact one since, so if you recognise it as yours, I do apologise. Just know that it makes an absolutely delicious hummus! I’ve … Continue reading →

We started drinking ‘pet food’, or organic raw milk as it is less commonly known, about a year ago. This was as a consequence of being introduced to the Western A Price principles on diet and nutrition. Before this, I had considered raw milk as the warm creamy slosh farmers drank straight out of a … Continue reading →

We have just bought and are moving to a new house, the car that we are in the process of selling needs to go to the panel beaters, Christmas is coming, I have a two year old and a four year old to bring up, I’m looking to get into employment or study again, I have … Continue reading →

I actually experimented with some baking in the weekend. After looking at some ideas on the Internet for using goji berries and almond meal, I mashed a few ideas together and came up with a rough plan. This can be a very dangerous undertaking and I don’t do this too often, but it kinda worked. … Continue reading →

We are drinking kombucha like it is going out of fashion. So having finished the last lot, the kids and I were happy to be bottling another batch of kombucha that I had been ‘second fermenting’. This time around, I made some lovely mixed berry kombucha and experimented with ‘Kiwi crush‘; a New Zealand made … Continue reading →

I’m not totally anal about what my children eat, however I like to think that on a daily basis I feed them pretty much unprocessed whole foods. They still eat cakes and biscuits and crackers, but not many and mostly home baked (when I get the time). And okay, I’m not perfect – they still … Continue reading →

I wanted to buy my little girl a dollshouse for her second birthday, so I started googling for ideas. There were lots of plastic chinese made ones for sale at the usual shops and the wooden dollshouses were EXTREMELY expensive! I especially LOVE the Lundby scandanavian style dollshouses. Here is one from Amazon.com. Gorgeous, but … Continue reading →

We use a lot of dish washing liquid in this house. It is expensive and I’m not keen on the ingredient’s list. I also tend to get a slight dermatitis flare up in my fingers with generic supermarket washing liquids. So I decided to get smart and make some of my own. The only problem … Continue reading →

Just briefly, some notes from stuff I am learning about plants… A Plant Life Cycle A plant life cycle describes how long a plant will live: Annual: A plant that usually germinates, grows, flowers and dies in one year, e.g. lettuce. (An Ephemeral is like an annual and has more than one generation in a … Continue reading →

A lovely friend gave me a set of retro drawers to do up. She knows what a sucker I am for this sort of thing, so I believe they have come to a good home. I love the big round wooden knobs. I’ve decided to create something a little different for my daughter’s room. I … Continue reading →

I found a borage plant in our (train wreck of a) garden. For non-borage people, it looks like this: Intrigued, I ‘googled’ and found out that the humble borage is an interesting and highly nutritional plant indeed. And of course I did want to know if I could eat it, because that is the way … Continue reading →

The benefits of buying local are great and most of us have access to local growers and producers in our communities. Growing our own food is even better. Fresh fruit and vegetables not only taste fantastic, but have a higher nutritional value when eaten straight from the garden. There has recently been a snowballing interest in … Continue reading →